The FBI and Social Media Companies Are Speaking Again
After it was made public how much the federal government was pressuring social media corporations to stifle opposing viewpoints, Meta, X (previously Twitter), and YouTube were shut down by the government. Experts in cybersecurity now regularly lament the lack of cooperation between the government and the platforms, alerting users to the dangers of spreading false information about elections, foreign meddling, and other issues.
But federal officials could be texting late-night "you up?" messages to the platforms once more. Nextgov and The Federalist claim that on Monday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) informed reporters that there is once again communication between the federal government and social media platforms.
Warner claimed that these conversations had actually picked back up during the oral arguments in the Supreme Court case Murphy v. Missouri. This case will determine whether the FBI, the CDC, and the Biden White House violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media platforms to remove content that they disagreed with.
The justices appeared to be at least partially dubious, seeing the government's activities as more like attempts at persuasion than force. Warner acknowledged that "there seemed to be a lot of compassion that the government ought to have at least voluntary conversations" with the platforms, suggesting that this skepticism has given the feds the go-ahead.
It is unclear if social media corporations ever considered these messages to be "voluntary." For example, CEO Mark Zuckerberg may have questioned whether he really had much of an option but to cooperate when then-White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield proposed modifying Section 230—the federal legislation that shields web companies from some liability—in order to punish Facebook.
It is unclear if social media corporations ever considered these messages to be "voluntary." For example, CEO Mark Zuckerberg may have questioned whether he really had much of an option but to cooperate when then-White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield proposed modifying Section 230—the federal legislation that shields web companies from some liability—in order to punish Facebook.
Visit http://SupportDiamondandSilk.com to Become a Monthly Supporter.
Stay Connected to Diamond and Silk: ChatDit, Frank Speech, GETTR TruthSocial and Rumble
